Well that’s a crazy story. In one part you have a battle with an undersea witch who is trying to save the world from the Hellboy prophesy, twisting wishes to kill people, getting saved by (essentially) the OG Little Mermaid (she wants to be foam on a wave).
In another, you have a bunch of cool African mythology I’d never heard of:
One day someone at Dark Horse asked if I was interested in doing a story about young Hellboy. I wasn’t, but instead of saying no I said, “What about two pages of Hellboy eating pcancakes?” I thought it was a riot. I didn’t expect anyone else to like it, but it turned out to be a big hit with a lot of readers. It’s nice when that happens.
It’s kind of strange that after half a dozen books of being on their own, we now have several in a row that always have Grandfather and other adults watching over them, even as they get older and (hopefully) wiser.
That being said, the (easy mode) mountain climbing is pretty neat, getting stranded is actually pretty good from a survival perspective, and finding and exploring caves is something I’ve always found cool–even if the Aldens don’t actually do much of that part.
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 2 sees the introduction of a number of the other National Alchemists, with their ridiculous names
Well that was a weird tonal shift. After two books1 chock full of Nazis and demonic imagery and larger worldbuilding, Hellboy, Vol. 3: The Chained Coffin and Others basically feels like a number of short stories all told in the Hellboy universe.
“You heard what the man said,” Giordino replied. “We’re going to Anchorage. Anchorage, Alaska,” he repeated lovingly. “South of the Arctic Circle. Did ever a place sound so warm and inviting?” he asked with a contented grin.
We’ve done ice before1). We’ve done mines before[^mine]. We’ve done oil before[^oil]. We’ve even done global warming before[^warming]. At some point, these books have really started to blend together. Almost done though, so at this point I’ll see them through.
I have never before read Fullmetal Alchemist. Amusingly though, I have seen (one of) the TV versions. It’s been a few years though–I watched it with my now wife before we were even married. So going back and reading it, everything has a strange sort of familiarity.
Do not try any of this at home. The author of this book is an internet cartoonist, not a health or safety expert.
In a nutshell, Randall Munroe takes the humor that makes up xkcd and the what if series and turns it into a book series. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and it’s worth a read. You might just learn something– even if it’s not at all the thing you were expecting to learn.
